WIP – Becky Levine

Last year, I guest-posted over at Shrinking Violet Promotions about the pluses of saying Yes. I believe firmly that it’s a much better word than No. Especially when you’re talking to yourself.

But how many yes‘s can you handle? As you move further along your writing path, opportunities are going to multiply. Here are just a few things you may want to jump into as you get deeper into your writing and your writing community:

Writing on multiple WIPs
Taking writing classes
Going to some writing conferences
Volunteering at a writing club or conference
Writing a blog
Getting out onto Facebook and/or Twitter
Contributing to a newsletter
JOIN A CRITIQUE GROUP 🙂

And there are 24 hours in a day?

How many times can you say yes without feeling like those balls you have in the air are transforming into chainsaws and unhappy cats? How do you pick which things to say yes to, without a crystal ball to tell you how it will all work out.

You listen to your gut and accept that Baby Steps can win at “Mother May I” just as well as Giant Steps.

If something sounds fun or you really think it’ll help your writing (craft or career), say yes. If an opportunity has a sour “taste” to it, think twice. Or thrice. Either way, though, if you decide to go for it, remember you can go slowly. You can start with one class, not three. You can pick a local, one-day conference, not a four-day event that requires two days on a plane and another for recovery. Ask your conference coordinators if they can use another person at the registration desk, the day of the conference, instead of offering to handle catering for the entire event.

If you inch forward, even several inches at once, you get a chance to try things out, to test your gut with the reality, not just the picture your nervous imagination is painting. You’ll see what you enjoy, what you’re good at, and what makes you feel like you’re moving forward…versus hitting a dead-end.

You’ll be doing more and you’ll be enjoying it.

What about you? What yes’s are you considering this fall?

1. In four mornings, son and I will get on a plane–okay, THREE planes–to Urbana, Illinois, where my older sister & family live.

2. In five mornings, I will hug son good-bye and travel with my sister (in her cool Prius; think she’ll let me drive?) to CHICAGO, where we’re staying for two nights, basically two days, and many, many research stops.

Hull-House museum (the ORIGINAL house from which Jane Addams grew the incredible undertaking that was her settlement house.)
Chicago History Museum
Spertus Museum & Library
Chicago Public Library (1913 Chicago Tribune ON MIRCOFICHE!)
The house my grandmother lived in until she came to California. We won’t go in, but we will DEFINITELY see the balcony she and her twin sister slept on during hot summers.
MAYBE the cemetery where her older sister is buried, the one who died during the big influenza wave. I have some phone calls to make about this one.
Macy’s. NO, I’m NOT just going shopping (note the JUST). This Macy’s is in the building that was the original Marshall Field’s department store in Chicago–total glitz and glamor.
Who knows WHERE else.

3. We’ll probably eat, too. Any can’t-misses in downtown Chicago? Chicago foods I HAVE to try? Throw recommendations into the comments!

4. In 7 days, we will drive back to Urbana, where I will spend the next few days hanging with nephews (and TOTALLY owning them at Pictionary, thank you very much!) and trying to process all the information I collect in Chicago. Can you say BRAINTWIST? I will also post MANY photos on my blog, assuming I can get them from camera to laptop.

5. In 11 days, I will get back on three planes and come home. In 11 days, it will also be my birthday, and I can’t think of any better way to celebrate than to come back to California, full of history and images and FEELINGS to weave into my WIP.

Excited? Me? Oh, no. 🙂

Category: WIP

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